For this three-part assignment, select a print or video advertisement, such as a magazine ad or television commercial. Your job for this essay is to analyze how the aspects of that advertisement work together in order to persuade an audience.
1) In the first section of your essay, you will write up a description of the ad, detailing the visual for a reader who has never before seen this advertisement and who does not have a copy. Limit yourself to ½ page. Descriptions of television commercials can get lengthy, and descriptions that are too long have the potential to bore a reader. Try your best to summarize only the important parts of a commercial.
2) Next, briefly discuss what you believe the advertisement is trying to persuade you to do. What does it say to you? What is its point or purpose?
3) In the remainder of your essay, your goal is to pull apart the elements of the advertisement in order to show how it works to persuade you of what you discussed in part two. For a print advertisement, you might analyze colors, fonts, images, text, and overall layout and positioning. For a commercial, you might analyze text, characters, setting, storyline, music, fonts, and colors. How do these elements work to persuade an audience?
With both types of advertisements, consider rhetorical appeals. Does this ad use ethos, pathos, and logos? Where? How is the use of ethos, pathos, and logos working to persuade an audience? What other strategies does it use to appeal to an audience?
All three sections of your essay should be connected using effective transitions. Do not simply label parts of the essay. You should also have an introductory paragraph that acts to both draw in the reader and to tell them exactly what you will be accomplishing in the essay by way of a thesis statement. Your conclusion should work to sum up your essay and to leave readers with something to think about. What new insights can you draw from analyzing the advertisement?
IMPORTANT: Be sure to attach a copy of the visual to your final essay submission (You may have the visual scanned and attach it to your paper)
Limit 3-5 pages